E.N. THOMPSON FORUM | China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power

Rob Gifford first went to China in 1987, as a 20 year old undergraduate, to study the Chinese language. He has spent much of the last twenty years living in and reporting on the rise of China, most recently as Beijing Correspondent of National Public Radio. In his recently-published book, China Road, he records a two month journey along Route 312, the Chinese equivalent of Route 66. The road flows three-thousand miles from east to west, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down.